MISSION, Texas - In their program notes, Western Governors University and AltaCair explained they co-hosted the recent Accelerator 2023 RGV Health Equity Conference.

“The research-backed program leverages the power of coopetition (collaboration with competitors, thought leadership, and action-oriented mindset to drive discussions around the socio-economic and environmental factors contributing to health disparities. 

“The investment coaches health systems, community-based organizations, accountable care organizations, workforce entities, and education alliances into a policy and advocacy group. 

“The vision is to think beyond geographical borders and develop a scalable model, with replicable results, to optimize the overall health equity structure of rural America.”

The key themes for discussion at Accelerator 2023, which was held at the Mission Event Center, were:

• Access to healthcare and value-based care
• Innovative, high-quality health and nurse education programs
• Nutrition security
• Prevention care

The program pointed out that, according to the US Census Bureau, 9.8 percent of people under the age of 65 do not have health insurance nationwide, but the percentages for the four poorest counties in the RGV are much higher:

• Hidalgo County: 33.1 percent
• Cameron County 29.9 percent
• Starr County 28.9 percent
• Willacy County 24.1 percent

To learn more about the conference, Rio Grande Guardian International News Service reporters Steve Taylor and Patricia Martinez interviewed four of the key players at the conference:

• Eric Weaver, executive director of the Institute for Advancing Health Value
• Kimberly Kelly-Cortez, senior associate dean and director of programs at WGU’s Leavitt School of Health
• Keith Smith, senior vice president at WGU’s Leavitt School of Health
• Edwin F. Estevez, co-founder and principal at AltaCair and market president at Prominence Health

In this, the first of a four-part audio series, the Guardian interviewed Weaver, Smith, and Kelly-Cortez:

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.